ThoughtWorks Brings People, Passion, and Play-Doh® to SXSW Experience Design Workshop
The custom software experts to demonstrate the power (and fun) of integrating experience design into the development process

CHICAGO, March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ThoughtWorks, Inc., continues to push the bounds of software practices with its 2012 South By Southwest (SXSW) workshop: AXD - Experience Design in Agile Teams. Led by front line practitioners, the hands-on interactive game, which features the liberal use of Play-Doh in the hands of both designers and developers, will highlight how Agile Experience Design can be leveraged to drive software innovation.

Marie-Claire Jenkins, one of the session co-leads and a lead designer at ThoughtWorks says, "Agile Experience Design is reinventing the way we create software. We're not simply making the design process more efficient, we're drawing customers into an unprecedented intimate conversation with both designers and technologists."

For over 10 years ThoughtWorks has been a pioneer in the advancement of Agile methodologies. Today, as a global leader in custom software development ThoughtWorks is extending the bounds of the field by integrating Agile practices into human centered design, product evolution strategies, and adaptive enterprise leadership.

With a global footprint, ThoughtWorks is applying design thinking on five continents, leading initiatives at major corporations and fast moving startups. "The concepts to be presented at SXSW and the recent publication of the book, Agile Experience Design, which was coauthored by ThoughtWorker Lindsay Ratcliffe, is the kind of leadership we're working to exert in this space," says Roy Singham, founder and chairman of ThoughtWorks.

The SXSW session on AXD - Experience Design in Agile Teams will be presented on Tuesday, March 13 at 3:30 pm CDT. The collaborative session will be led by a trio of senior Agile designers: Cathie Hagen, Megan Cook, and Marie-Claire Jenkins; along with ThoughtWorks chairman and founder, Roy Singham.

About ThoughtWorks

ThoughtWorks - The custom software experts. A company wholly devoted to the art and science of custom software. We make it, and we make our clients better at it. Our bottom line is to design and deliver software fast and predictably. Doing enterprise-scale software is tough, but the returns to those organizations that can deliver – on target – are tremendous. ThoughtWorks' products division, ThoughtWorks Studios, offers tools to manage the entire Agile development lifecycle through its Adaptive ALM™ solution, comprised of Mingle®, Go™ and Twist®. ThoughtWorks employs over 1,700 professionals to serve clients from offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

We lead the industry in rapid, reliable and efficient custom software development. When you need an expert partner to help you get ahead and stay ahead of the competition, get in touch.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a company that plans and executes conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Current roster of events include SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco, which take place every spring (usually in March) except SXSWeco, which takes place in October, all in Austin, Texas.

SXSW Interactive is focused on emerging technology, a focus which has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. According to one of the festival organizers, Louis Black, SXSW Interactive "has probably been the biggest of its kind in the world" since 2007.

The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 12,000 registrants. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events have grown every year, most recently bringing around 15,000 to 20,000 registrants to Austin every March.

Collectively, SXSW is the highest revenue-producing event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of $167 million in 2011.